MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

3/16 Doing it right

Dale Sveum and his coaching staff have been correcting mistakes as soon as they can and so far, the Cubs manager hasn’t had to invoke the 24-hour cooling off period. Sveum has placed an emphasis this spring on defense, fundamentals, preparation and attention to detail.

“We’ve addressed being held accountable on the defensive end of everything,” Sveum said Friday. “When something happens on the field, it’s taken care of right when they get off the field. You don’t have time for the mistakes or mental mistakes to happen again. Some people like to do say, ‘Well, I’ll take care of it after the game.’ What if there are six innings left and it happens again? If something goes awry on the field, you have to address it right then and hold people accountable for what goes on on the field.”

He’s done that a few times this spring, correcting players on positioning and fielding but says so far, nothing major has happened.

“We’ve been great at running balls out,” he said. “I haven’t had to deal with that so all that’s been good. Just some minor things. There are some things where you have to give the 24-hour rule and cool down before you might say something or do something stupid. For the most part, you try to take care of these other things when they come right off the field.”

Has anything prompted that one day waiting period?

“No, there hasn’t,” he said. “I know there will be. So far, not yet. Obviously, things haven’t gone well the last couple days on the pitching end of things but those are more human things that aren’t going too well for the guy on the mound.”

The Cubs have been outscored 22-4 in last two games against the Brewers and Diamondbacks. That might necessitate a cooling off period, too.

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